I thought I would go back memory lane and do some posts on the my twin's pregnancy, early arrival and first year. I'll start off with the day we found out we had TWO babies on board.
I always had a feeling that twins were in store for me and my mother did too. When I was pregnant with Oliver everyone was convinced it was twins, after all my great grandmother had twins and my husband had a twin who unfortunately didn't make it passed the first trimester. I was so happy at Oliver's 12 week scan when one healthy wriggly baby was revealed, I was going to be a young new mum and I really wanted to be able to enjoy my babies separately.
Roll onto my second pregnancy. This time I had a feeling something was up. I remember talking to mum on the phone when I was around 8 weeks and telling her that I was popping out so quickly and wondering to her if was twins this time. I was extremely tired all the time and had been napping in the day and then going to bed at 8pm (but put it down to having a todder) as well as suffering from constant nausea and headaches all of which were worse than my pregnancy with Ollie. I also felt some "flutterings" around 10 weeks which added to my suspicions.
My husband felt we may be expecting twins too, he didn't tell me at the time but the Sunday before we had the 12 week scan he was sitting in church and had the thought come to him that there needed to be more babies in the congregation and that we would soon be adding two babies to the fold.
I was so nervous the morning of the 12 week scan. I remember my heart beating loudly and my palms sweating as Jared drove us there. I was convinced that they were either going to tell us there was no baby there (I am a massive worry wort) or that there were TWO babies there. I couldn't decide which was more horrifying!
Finally we were called in and I got comfy on the ultrasound table while Jared found a good spot to stand while holding Ollie who was 16 months at the time. As soon as the ultrasound wand was put on my stomach she gasped "That's not normal!" and quickly moved it away but it was too late I had already seen two babies squirming around inside me. "Did you see that?" she asked "You're having twins!". By this point Ollie had wiggled his way out of Jared's arms and was climbing through cords, he was a still is a really full on child and the thought of having him and two newborns flooded my mind. I started to freak out. I started to cry. We were asked if we would like a moment alone and the ultrasound tech took Ollie for us so we could talk. I remember looking at Jared with tears in my eyes telling him I wasn't strong enough to do this, we were going to have 3 kids under 2 and I just couldn't do it. I wouldn't be able to give birth to two babies. It was all too much. Jared was so kind and loving and told me how strong I was and that I would be able to do it and that Heavenly Father wouldn't send us twins if he didn't think we were up to the task. I had some water and settled down so we could get on with the scan.
Twin B (Charlotte) was in a great position to be measured so she was done first. Every think looked perfect. Twin A (Lillian) was lower down so I had to have an internal scan for her which was really the last thing I felt like getting done at the time. We were told that they both had their own sacs and palcentas (although later scans only showed 1 and there was only 1 at their birth) so they were most likely fratenal. The scan ended up taking an hour and by the end Ollie was well and truly past it and was being horrible.
Jared only had an hour off work so had to quickly leave as soon as he dropped us home. I needed to talk to someone about it all so I rang mum up and when she answered the phone I blurted out "there is two on them in there!". Mum began to laugh and cry at the same time. I arranged to go over to her house after Oliver's nap and we spent the afternoon getting our heads around it all.
After the initial shock wore off the excitment began to sink in. There was so much to prepare! We needed to find a bigger car, second cot, lots of clothes and tiny cloth nappies need to be made. Was I going to get it done in time? And could I at least have one girl please?
Ok, I'll leave it there for now. Stay tuned for the next installment- My twin pregnancy.
